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Crisis Pregnancy Centers Undermine the Reproductive Health of Women of Color

Posted by Shari Inniss-Grant, Fellow | Posted on: March 28, 2013 at 10:47 am

Traveling on subways in NY, I often saw ads asking if a woman was “alone, scared, pregnant” and suggesting she call a Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) hotline for help. Spread throughout the city, these seemingly-innocuous English and Spanish ads often faded into the background—designed to capture your attention only if you, a friend, or family member needed help.

Since one in two pregnancies across the U.S. is unintended, women daily face a need for reproductive healthcare that might prompt them to call one of the 2,500 to 4000 CPCs located across the country. Unfortunately, instead of offering transparent, unbiased, comprehensive information that allows a woman to make her own informed choices, CPCs adamantly advocate against abortion regardless of the woman’s life and health circumstances, and needs.

If you’ve been reading our blog, you know we just launched a toolkit that helps women who have been deceived by CPCs’ harmful tactics to file complaints and seek justice. What you may not know, is that CPCs have been deliberately targeting women of color in urban communities.

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Pregnant Workers Get New Protections in Maryland

Posted by Amy Tannenbaum, Program Assistant | Posted on: March 27, 2013 at 02:23 pm

Great news! Yesterday, a bill that will protect pregnant workers who need workplace accommodations passed in Maryland. This victory is due to the hard work of local advocates, especially the ACLU of Maryland. Now, when pregnant workers in Maryland need a simple accommodation to be able to continue to work safely – for example, a stool to sit on, or more frequent bathroom breaks – they will have clear-cut legal protection from being forced onto unpaid leave or even terminated. We have already seen the success of laws like these in protecting pregnant workers in states like California. Plus, experience shows accommodating pregnant workers, like accommodating individuals with disabilities, can be good for the bottom line. As a Maryland resident, I am very proud of my state.

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Calling All Tax Credit Stories!

Posted by Kara Kempski, Outreach Intern | Posted on: March 26, 2013 at 10:50 am

This post is the sixth in a series of weekly posts containing tax information and filing tips. Check back next week for our next post, or click here to read past posts. 

Taxes. Just saying the word can make people groan. But the reality is, this time of year can actually bring good news to low- and moderate-income families all over the country. Federal tax credits such as the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (worth up to $2,100), the Child Tax Credit (worth up to $1,000 per child), and the Earned Income Tax Credit (worth up to $5,891), can give a boost to families whose incomes are too low to owe taxes. 

One family in Dallas took advantage of free tax preparation at a United Way VITA site and was rewarded for their effort. They qualified for the federal EITC and received nearly a $6,000 refund! Less than two weeks later, the refund was in the family's bank account and helped to pay for things that the family really needed: children's clothes, a crib, and a new car. 

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Manufacturing Shows Growth - But Women Are Being Left Behind

Posted by Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: March 26, 2013 at 10:10 am

This morning's Census data signal positive growth in manufacturing, but there's a hidden part of this story that new NWLC analysis of jobs data reveals: women are being left behind. 

The Census data show that new durable goods orders were up in February and that orders have increased five of the last six months. But women are not sharing in this manufacturing recovery: 

  • Manufacturing added 517,000 net jobs from January 2010 to February 2013. Men gained 535,000 jobs, while women actually lost 18,000 jobs. 
  • This trend is not a correction for men's recession losses — during the recession men and women both experienced manufacturing job losses proportionate to their share of the field. 
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What Does Sex Discrimination Have to Do with Marriage Equality?

Posted by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel | Posted on: March 25, 2013 at 02:21 pm

It's marriage equality week! Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8, which revoked same-sex couples' right to marry in California. The day after that, the Court will consider the constitutionality of Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which provides that same-sex married couples cannot be considered "married" under federal law. There are lots of reasons why we will be watching these cases closely. In human terms, both cases have could have a dramatic impact on the lives of same-sex couples. Indeed, they have the potential to be historic civil rights milestones — moments when the arc of the universe curves toward justice. 

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The Deeply Regrettable End to Senate Republicans' Filibuster of Caitlin Halligan

Posted by Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President | Posted on: March 25, 2013 at 11:45 am

Last Friday, Caitlin Halligan, the highly qualified nominee to the D.C. Circuit who had been subjected to two filibusters, asked the President to withdraw her name. Despite her impeccable qualifications and the bipartisan support of her peers, the legal and law enforcement community, and numerous organizations across the country, and despite the fact that four out of the eleven seats on the D.C. Circuit are vacant, every Republican Senator except Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski refused to allow an up-or-down vote on her nomination. 

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Government Shutdown Averted, but Harmful Cuts Will Continue

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: March 21, 2013 at 04:05 pm

I’m not sure whether it counts as good news to report that Congress carried out one of its most basic responsibilities today by ensuring that the government will continue to function for the rest of FY 2013 — but it’s certainly better than reporting a government shutdown beginning next week. 

Today, the House of Representatives approved the continuing resolution (CR) passed yesterday by the Senate, averting a potential shutdown by funding government operations through the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2013). (The CR passed last September will expire on March 27.) The bill largely maintains current funding levels, further reduced by the full $85 billion in cuts from the “sequester,” which means many programs and services that women and their families depend on remain subject to cuts — and hundreds of thousands of jobs are still likely to be lost, slowing our economic recovery.  

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Here's an Idea: Instead of Cutting Women's Social Security Benefits, Let's Improve Them

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: March 21, 2013 at 03:35 pm

No, the threat to women’s Social Security benefits from the chained CPI hasn’t gone away. After the House and Senate finish voting on their separate budget resolutions this week, the real bargaining begins. And the proposal to cut Social Security benefits by using a lower measure of inflation — the chained Consumer Price Index — to reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments is still very much on the table. Indeed, it's part of the President’s announced plan for deficit reduction, if increased revenues are also part of the deal. 

But after a long week of budget debates that still isn’t over, it’s time to take a break for a little good news. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI) just introduced the Social Security Enhancement and Protection Act of 2013. Her bill would improve Social Security’s minimum benefit, increase benefits for long-term beneficiaries, restore the student benefit, and strengthen the financing of the Social Security system for decades — without cutting benefits. 

The bill would improve Social Security’s minimum benefit — a change that would be especially valuable to women, who are a majority of low-wage workers and are more likely than men to take time out of the paid labor force to raise children. And, it would recognize the value of childrearing work by allowing credits of up to five years toward the minimum benefit when a parent was raising a child under age six. 

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